THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNFIT 67 
doxes? How reconcile them with the doctrine of the 
survival of the fittest ? 
In Nature the battle is not always to the strong, nor 
the race to the swift. The survival of the fittest does 
not mean the survival of the ideally fit, but of those 
best adapted to their surroundings. Many are the 
habitations of the earth, and Nature fills each of these 
with the most suitable occupant at her disposal. Every 
creature that now exists is a victor in the struggle 
for existence. Every one has been offered a situation 
by Nature and accepted it. The mole survives, not 
because he is a magnificent, comely creature, but be- 
cause he is willing to live a lowly life under the earth, 
The brown rat flourishes because it is ready, for the 
sake of life, to live in dark, noisome drains and eat 
garbage, 
Every animal now living has survived, because it is 
willing to occupy the place assigned to it by Nature, no 
matter how lowly that position be. Many animals 
have, to use a figure of speech, preferred to perish 
to thus occupying menial positions ; they have refused 
to accept the station offered them by Nature; they 
have elected to wage war with the giants of the earth 
and have been defeated, and hence are known to us 
only as fossils, 
Other great animals have, so to speak, overreached 
themselves, and hence are no more. There is no room 
on this little earth for giants. They have all become 
extinct, with the exception of the elephant, the whale, 
and the giraffe, and these species are struggling against 
their inevitable doom. So that even before man came 
